Onyeche Wofurum Igwe
Coordinator of National Youth Service Corps in Rivers State, Oleghe Moses, has made a case for the construction of more hostels in the state NYSC camp.
He told TNN reporters during an exclusive interview at the camp on Thursday that with more hostels, the state would be able to comfortably accommodate more corps members deployed to the state.
In appealing to the state government for intervention, he also expressed appreciation to the government for previous interventions, including the construction of the 5000- seater auditorium.
He said: “I was telling the garrison commander yesterday when he visited us that this hall is a 5,000-seater capacity.
“But we don’t have the hostel facility that will accommodate the number of corps members that this hall can accommodate. Our hostel facility can just barely accommodate maybe 3,000.
“We are hoping that the government will intervene and build more hostels so that it will be able to accommodate more.”
The coordinator lamented the effect of the emergency rule regime in the state, saying before now, the state government had sent engineers to to the camp for assessments.
The government, under Sim Fubara, he recalled, had taken steps to embark on the renovation of the camp.
“They have already done their feasibility study. They did all that they needed to do, take pictures and all of that. The plan was that before we start this Batch A, we would have renovated the entire camp.
“But for what happened, we are hoping that all that will still be done in no distant time,” he added.
Moses also said that the essence of camping corps members was to instill discipline in them and to make them better people.
Hear him: “The essence of the camping is to instill discipline in the corps members, to be able to tame them. They are used to freedom; in school nobody controls them but here is a regimented environment.
“And so far so good, they have been complying with the rules and regulations guiding the camp.
“This is one of the best orientation camps we have nationwide. This hall is our signature, and everybody wants to come here.”
He stressed that the orientation exercise was impactful and that it was the duty of NYSC to remould corps members and make them to listen to instructions.
“The orientation exercise is very impactful. When you bring today a raw graduate from the university or polytechnic and take them to the labour market, there’ll be a lot of crisis.
“It is not about what you read in school, it’s about how you are able to bring the best out of the person and be able to fit into the society, into the workplace. In camp here, we are able to remould them and make them better people.”
On security, he said “we have a hostel governor who is a corps member, hostel inspector who is a staff of NYSC in each hostel. They have a cubicle there. They must make sure everybody who is a corps member in that hostel is asleep by 10pm.”
Moses added that the NYSC in the state had a cordial relationship with the host communities.
One of the commercial banks was at the camp on Thursday to sensitize the corpse members on the gains of financial independence and entrepreneurship.
Speaking on this, the director said “we also advise corps members to acquire skills. We have collaboration with Unity Bank, Wema Bank, the Bank of Industry, Access Bank.
“These financial institutions helps to impact on the corps members to be able to start up businesses,” he emphasized.
